Blizzard-made StarCraft II custom games now in beta

Blizzard have made three new custom games available to beta test on Battle.net. The modes are still under development, but Blizzard are keen to get some feedback from the community. More details follow.

The first of the three new games is Aiur Chef, a free-for-all for up to 8 players. The game mode has quite the sense of humour about it, revolving around cooking. Players will have to scout out the map searching for ingredients, before returning to the kitchen in the centre of the map to put together a dish. Dishe's created with the match's themed ingredient will award points and bonuses. Players with the most points will be awarded the most honourable title of "Executor Chef, culinary guru of the entire Koprulu Sector".

Next up is StarJeweled; Blizzard's take on Pop-Cap's popular gem puzzler. Combining jewels unleashes energy which can be used to train units and cast spells. By playing the puzzle tactically, players will be able to defend their own base and destroy their opponent. Each game will last five rounds.

The last game is an interesting co-op set up called Left 2 Die. Here, two players will have to help each other survive a version of the Outbreak mission from the Wings of Liberty campaign. The map cycles between day and night, and when the sun goes down hordes of infested Terran come out to play. Daylight hours will give you and an ally time to boost defences and train units in time for the moonlight siege.

You can find all the finer details over at Blizzard's StarCraft II website , where you can also leave feedback on the modes. There's no official launch dates as yet for any of the modes. It's not just Blizzard who are having all the fun. Modders have been creating amazing things using the StarCraft 2 mission editor. Stay tuned to the site for our pick of the very best custom made maps for StarCraft 2, coming soon.